Paul Strickland Scanner Centre at Mount Vernon Hospital celebrates 25th anniversary (From Watford Observer)

Paul Strickland Scanner Centre at Mount Vernon Hospital celebrates 25th anniversary

10:18am Wednesday 30th June 2010 in

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The Paul Strickland Scanner Centre at Mount Vernon Hospital celebrated its 25th anniversary yesterday.

Based at the Northwood hospital, but an independent medical charity, the centre provides both CT and MRI scanning facilities to diagnosis cancer and other serious diseases.

Almost 200,000 scans have been carried out in since the facility opened in 1985, funded entirely by public donations.

It is named after Dr Paul Strickland OBE, a cancer specialist who campaigned for the scanners, believing they could save lives by recognising the disease at an early stage.

He said: “Less than 30 years ago I was working at Mount Vernon Hospital and was determined to get CT scanning for cancer there.

“Rage and enthusiasm spurred me on, I set about raising the money to buy one. Within six months we had raised enough to place a firm order for one of the first CT scanners in Britain.

“The Scanner Centre is now world famous, over the past 25 years we have remained true to our original intention of being at the forefront of scanning technology, providing our patients with the best chance of life. I'm very proud of that.”

Mount Vernon Cancer Centre is also set to join a partnership of two other specialist institutes this week, in order to share research into a cure for the disease.

The Northwood hospital will join a long-standing team of The Royal Marsden and The Institute of Cancer Research.

It is hoped the partnership will allow a large pool of research and patients for clinical trials.

Professor Peter Rigby, ICR chief executive, said: “Progress in medical science is very much a collaborative effort. We are very excited to be announcing this historic partnership.”

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